Are Annual Testing Requirements Applicable for Certain Bakery Products?

Good afternoon, does anyone know if annual testing is required for the following: Water Activity, PH, Total Plate Count, Yeast & Mold for shelf stable bakery products? 

Thank you in advance. 

Chris 

Yes, maybe, yes, yes.

I'd like to believe they're happening more often than annually.

are you talking about the actual products or the environment?

One could relatively safely assume, that is the process, recipe and ingredients have not changed, that your finished good will be +/- the same as last tests for say, Y&M

plate count?  for what

can you add some detail and context?

Good afternoon, does anyone know if annual testing is required for the following: Water Activity, PH, Total Plate Count, Yeast & Mold for shelf stable bakery products? 

Thank you in advance. 

 

Chris 

Do you have a risk assessment? 

In RTE baked goods I have generally relied on a validated kill step and focused on environmental post lethality, then conduct in house testing of moisture and pH.  Water activity is only valuable if this is low enough to inhibit growth.  APC and Y&M would be in conjunction with shelf life testing if we are talking about a loaf of bread.  Now if you have additions to your baked goods (thinking pastry creams and fillings) then you would want to have a higher frequency of testing to start and build data on how effective your processes are.  After you have collected enough data you can risk assess the frequency of testing a make a calculated decision on your testing schedule.